Fleet Week show: NYPD and Marines team up to give back to youth boxing program

The NYPD and Marines celebrated Fleet Week in Times Square on Wednesday night by treating youngsters to a special show and distributing boxing gloves to youth athletes in an effort keep them motivated.

Hundreds of tourists and New Yorkers alike gathered in Father Duffy Square to watch members of the Armed Forces assemble in formation, play music and demonstrate their skills through a unique display of military training that saw the Marines twirling their firearms in midair. Kicking off Fleet Week, the presentation had many looking on in awe, including youngsters who are currently being mentored by a police program.

The tweens and teens of Cops and Kids Boxing — a Brooklyn-based free gym program helmed by the NYPD boxing team — were provided with a front row experience to the show for fleet week.

“We’re here showing our appreciation to the past, present, and the future of the Marine Corps,” cop and marine Gerardo Cavallero said. “It allows them to continue to foster that competitive spirit and be able to do better and get out of bad places.”

After joining sailors and other members of the Armed Forces, the men and women played music, sang, and interacted with the audience, it was revealed that the NYPD and marines teamed up give out free boxing gloves to the youngsters to help continue their training.

“I feel like it’s something important from them. They’re definitely going to take something out of it and I can guarantee you this is a moment they will never forget,”Cavallero said.

Nisa Rodriguez joined in glove distribution and serves as a special mentor to the youth. Not only a member of the NYPD Citywide Rapid Response Unit, she is also a professional boxer who will be fighting in Madison Square Garden next month.

Knowing what it is like coming from the street and getting into her fair share of trouble herself, she feels it is important to not only have a positive mentor for kids, but also one that looks like and understands them.

“New York City Cops and Kids is where the NYPD boxing team trains out of and that helped me see cops as something more, a parent, a teacher, someone that had another job and wanted to do something more,” Rodriguez said, adding that she would eventually like to see the program available in every borough.